


Back Me Up

by plsnskanks (orphan_account)



Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, and mark is a pretty solid friend, in which jon has social anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-04 22:33:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15850764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/plsnskanks
Summary: Jon has a crush on Matt, Mark helps out a bit, Tom's just there for the drinks





	Back Me Up

It is a lazy Sunday where Matt finds himself outside gardening a bit. Their house had a rap of becoming the eyesore of the neighborhood and after a politely passive aggressive note arrived on their door commenting on this fact, Matt decided he would get out and do something about it because he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that handwriting was suspiciously similar to Mark’s.

After all, looking bad wasn’t exactly something he did, and he would be damned if his house didn’t reflect that as well. So he had spent a few weekends retouching the paint job, cleaning gutters, touching up their mailbox, washing windows and now all that was left was to spruce up the lawn.

Sure, he could have just mowed it and called it good enough, but that was boring and Matt wanted their house to stand out a bit from the rest. That’s where he got the idea of planting a garden. Nothing too fancy, just a few flowers lining their walk and leading to their house.

So he worked diligently with a trowel until he felt the telltale prickle of eyes on him.

Matt turned and looked to see his neighbor staring at him from over the hedge.

“Oh hey Jon,” he said to the quietest of his neighbors. To be honest he never had much of an opinion of Jon. Where Eduardo was obnoxious and rude and Matt was constantly sine waving between being his best friend or his worst enemy, Jon was just kind of there.

He guessed he was kinda cute, especially right now. He had a little button nose, graceful stature and a dust of pink across the bridge of his nose.

“Hey, you got a little sunburn going on there,” Matt said, pointing to his own face.

“A-ah, yeah.” Jon said voice quaking. Then he disappeared from behind the hedge. Matt shrugged and turned his attention back to his work. The wind changed and he thought he caught a whiff of something in the breeze but the scent was gone so he continued without further note.

Mark quirked an eyebrow, unimpressed at his housemate’s return, setting down the book he had been reading into his lap.

“Really?”

“I can’t, it’s too hard,” Jon whined, wiping his flushed face with his shirt. Mark rolled his eyes.

“First off, don’t do that, that’s disgusting,” he said pointing one delicately manicured nail at Jon’s now dirty shirt. “Second off, Matt for all his pretty boy charms, isn’t hard to impress, what did you say to him?”

Jon opened his mouth and closed it and wrung his hands and muttered something under his breath.

“Excuse me, I can’t hear you over the sound of your desperation,” Mark said turning his attention back to the magazine in his lap.

“I didn’t say anything,” Jon said louder. Speaking volume was about as loud as he ever got. Mark regarded him with a calculating look. He folded his magazine shut and sighed. He patted the seat next to him.

“Waiting until you’re in heat to try and deal with your crush is not the polite way to do things,” Mark said as Jon came and sat down next to him.

Jon slouched forward miserably, “I know, I just thought it would help with the whole confidence issue.”

Mark pulls him back up by the collar of his shirt.

“You can start by sitting up straight, poor body posture just signals how you feel about yourself to the world,” Mark says as he watches his friend sit up right with a look of determination on his face.

“Now look, I will do you a favor, alright?” Mark said as Jon looks at him attentively. “I’ll invite everyone out to the pub down the street and what goes on there is up to you.”

“A pub, I don’t know,” Jon says nervously. He wasn’t sure if the idea made him more or less anxious.

“A place where if you mess up everyone is either going to be too drunk or to used to people whiffing it to care,” Mark said. 

Jon was still silent.

“Look Jon I can only help you so much before I’m practically asking Matt out for you, and trust me you don’t want me to do that,” Mark flashes him a sharp smile. “I don’t have a good record of sharing.”

Jon’s face hardens. He remembers alright. Mark burned his way through most of the alphas, betas and omegas of their high school before they had graduated. Got in a fair bit of fights over it too. His fine features looked delicate, but Jon had seen him with a bloody nose and a proud smile to match it enough times to know Mark’s threat had some legitimate bite to it.

“I’ll do it, alright,” Jon snapped. “You’d better not.”

Mark opened his magazine again and started reading, relaxing back into the couch. “You’re all talk until I see as much.”

The words smart but Jon has to acknowledge their veracity. 

One of the additional rules that Mark let him know in the drive over was that alcohol was to be kept to a minimum in this situation and that he could and would cockblock him if he thought either party was too out of it to consent. Jon nodded.

When they arrived happy hour was just starting and the trickle of people coming in soon turned into a flood. Matt was there in a light purple polo shirt. He quite evidently had a bit of a farmers tan as was evident when he moved his arms showing flashes of light skin. Mark let Jon go into the booth in front of him and was followed after by Eduardo. Mark found himself across from Tom and Eduardo across from Edd.

Tord had apparently declined their offer to “jack it to some anime drawings” Edd had explained and it was beyond the three of them to decipher if he was actually joking or not.

Conversation started and then quickly devolved into an argument between Edd and Eduardo on who could do a certain dance move better and the two of them left to go sort it out. Mark politely offers to buy Tom another drink at the bar, and it seems some sort of silent exchange occurs before Tom gets up and follows Mark leaving Jon alone with Matt.

“Looks like they left the two of us,” Matt says, giving Jon a soft nudge. Jon looks over to him shyly. He can feel his heart beating in his chest and feel how clammy his palms feel and under all that the twinge of need, and oh he is going to mess this up he knows he is.

“Yeah,” Jon says quietly.

“Glad to see your sunburn looks a bit better,” Matt comments. “You should really wear sunscreen out, you have really nice skin.”

“Ah, oh, yeah,” Jon says and he knows he isn’t adding much to the conversation and that he is fumbling, fumbling like he always did all through high school and as the silence stretches out between them he gets more and more nervous and his eyes dart around the interior until he sees Mark looking their way and with a serene expression Mark gives him a thumbs up and a little “go on” gesture.

Jon remembers their previous conversation and he realizes it doesn’t get anymore set up than this and that if he drops this now it will be on him entirely for not taking the initiative when Mark practically drug him to the finish line.

The worst that could happen is he gets turned down right? Come to think of it Mark got turned down a lot in high school too. Sometimes pretty harshly too. One of the girls he actually had a genuine interest in flat out turned him down over and over again because his reputation preceded him. Jon feels a well of warmth in his chest and feels his brows draw together and with a surprisingly intense stare he turns to Matt and asks:

“Would you like to dance?”

Matt blinks a bit, a bit confused by the solemn delivery of such a light-hearted question but he smiles. 

“Sure.”

The height difference is a bit daunting between them, John is nearly a foot shorter than Matt, yet he leads him across the bar with the authority powered by his triumph. They dance and as the songs shift one by one and keep on melding Jon finds himself genuinely worrying less about how he looks, whether he is messing things up, whether he is awkward.

They dance together and Matt occasionally does a goofy move or pulls a face at a song that makes Jon laugh. He seems to know the lyrics of some songs astonishingly well and his theatrical side comes out as he lip syncs a few and pantomimes the lyrics. 

Jon finds himself breathless with how much he is laughing and then he rolls his ankle and nearly falls but not before Matt lashes out and grabs a hold of his wrist putting his hand on his waist to hold him steady.

“How about we take a break,” Matt says, slightly out of breath. Some of his hair has come to settle down in his face and he blows it up again and combs it back with his fingers. Jon feels a flush returning to his cheeks as he notices how he is being held and nods.

“Alright.”

They walk back to the table to see Tom and Mark together, Tom’s face is lax and he looks like he is having a nice time as Mark chats animatedly to him. They settle down next to them.

“So where did Edd and Eduardo go?” Matt said.

Mark snorts, Tom lets out a laugh.

“Doing something illicit out in the alley.”

“Really?” Matt says looking annoyed.

“Don’t judge bathroom boy,” Mark smirks.

“Hey! We do not talk about junior prom in this house,” Matt says, voice full of indignation. “At least I never got caught by a teacher.”

“At least I get laid regularly,” Mark says and Tom next to him quirks an eyebrow at Matt waiting for him to respond. 

“I get laid plenty,” Matt says, demeanor only getting more and more defensive.

“Tom here says you don’t,” Mark says nudging Tom. Tom takes a sip of his drink not even trying to look innocent.

“Tom!” Matt says staring at his friend accusingly.

“Just kidding, he didn’t say anything, thanks for confirming though,” Mark says, folding his hands together and smiling smugly at Matt whose face starts to pinch up in a mix of genuine irritation and embarrassment.

“I can have sex anytime I want,” Matt says. 

“Oh yes, I am sure,” Mark says facetiously.

“I’ll prove it,” Matt says standing.

Mark stands along with him. “Oh yeah? Alright. Take someone home, anyone. I don’t need any more proof than seeing you walk out arm in arm with someone.”

Mark outstretches his hand. Matt grasps it firmly and shakes it.

“What about you? Highschool was a while ago, why don’t you prove you’re still on the ball.”

Mark’s eyes flash dangerously, “I don’t need to prove anything, but you know what? Sure.”

They shake and Tom takes a drink from his glass draining it and slamming it upside down onto the table,   
“You two are, by far, the pettiest people I have ever met, especially when you’re around each other.”

“Want to go dance again?” Jon says, nudging Matt. Matt looks at him surprised, as if broken out of a stupor.

“Huh? Yeah, sounds fun,” Matt says but he doesn’t look Jon in the face as he responds. 

Once again Jon leads him out but this time Matt is slower and lags behind, scanning the crowd and seemingly taking his time. 

Back at the table Mark looks over to Tom, flashing him a winning smile, “So, want to make my night easy and walk out on my arm?”

Tom shrugs, “Want to pay off my tab?”

Mark shrugs, “Deal.”

Tom gets up, “Cool, I am getting another drink.”

Jon tries to ignore it but it is considerably less fun dancing with Matt while he is trying to scope out people to hit one. Jon is slow, but he isn’t that slow.

“Hey, uh,” Jon starts. Matt doesn’t seem to notice him.

Finally he feels what is a mix of genuine annoyance and rejection pulsing through him.

“Hey!” he finally snaps.

Matt turns his attention full back to Jon.

“If you just want to complete the bet that’s fine, but I am going to go find someone else to dance with,” Jon says, even though he knows he is far too shy to approach a stranger. He’ll probably just sit at the bar until Mark is ready to go home. He glances back at the table to see Mark and Tom huddling close together and laughing.

Oh. Right.

Well, he could always walk.

“Wait, sorry, wait,” Matt is falling over himself as he realizes the context of the situation.

“Forget the bet. Tom is right, Mark always brings out the asshole in me, I am sorry,” Matt says, looking sheepish. “I am having a lot of fun with you I just got caught up in being competitive with butt chin over there. I want to keep dancing if you want to?”

Jon smiles up at him warmly, and Matt can’t help but notice that Jon has soft dimples. His heart stutters a bit.

“Alright.”

They dance and dance and by the time either of them are getting tired it’s well past midnight.

“Shoot, well there goes the bet,” Matt says glancing at the thinning crowd around them. Everyone still on the dancefloor is either borderline dry humping or done in for the night in terms of drinks.

“Oh, um,” Jon honestly doesn’t have the words to dole out some smooth pickup line, but he figures it’s now or never. “I wouldn’t mind helping you.”

Matt looks at him in surprise, “Oh no way, you don’t-.”

“I want to,” Jon says firmly, giving him a reassuring smile.

 

Matt blinks, “Alright.”

He holds out his arm and Jon takes it and together they stride off the dance floor.

“Haha my date can walk out of the bar on his own,” Matt says smugly as he watches Mark struggle to get a snoring Tom off the table.

“Officer please,” Tom snorts awake, lazy smile coming across his face, “I can totally pass the straight line test.”

Mark looks tempted to drop him but doesn’t. “He is still technically on my arm, shoulder, whatever, so we will call this a draw.”

“Yeah whatever,” Matt says turning to leave the bar.

“And Matt?” Mark says waiting until he looks back over his shoulder to make eye contact.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t be an asshole.”

Matt turns back around without comment but the words aren’t lost on him. It was a phrase he himself hurled at Mark quite a few times and had become a shorthand way for them to tell each other, “Don’t be a bastard to your one-night stand”.

He led Jon out into the fresh night air which had a bit of a nip to it now that they were out of the bar and away from the body heat of random strangers.

“Nice night,” Matt said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pair of keys to dangle them by the ring. He swung them at his side and realized he was actually anxious to be taking someone home. It had been a while and the last time… hadn’t ended well and maybe that was in part why it had been a while.

They arrive at his car and he pulls open the door for Jon and waits until he is safely inside to shut it before coming around to his own.

He shuts his door, puts the key in, and away they go. 

It’s so late that there is barely a soul on or in the street so it’s a nice drive. Matt realizes it is going to be a straight shot of green lights home so he takes a look out at the window and catches sight of a small park with street lamps.

“You want to hang out here for a bit?”

Jon looks out at the window. The park has a little hill with stairs that lead out of the trees to a clearing at the top with a small bench.

“Uh, sure, want to go to the bench?”

Matt follows his finger and then nods. 

“Sounds nice.”

They walk out and follow the path up. They sit on the bench and it is raised just high enough elevation wise that they can see the houselights around for miles. Most of them are off because it is late, but here and there is a soft yellow square peeking out from the hills and trees, interwoven with strands of streetlights and the multicolored alternating traffic lights.

“You know, I always thought this town was really crummy, but it has its charms,” Matt says sighing softly as he leans back on the bench.

“I like it. The people are nice,” Jon said.

“So where exactly were you in high school, I can remember Mark and Eduardo because they were banging and beating up half the school respectively. But what about you?”

“Me? Oh uh, I guess I just tended to drift.”

“It always struck me as odd that you stuck with those two, they seems… abrasive.”

“They honestly aren’t so bad once you get to know them,” Jon said. “Eduardo is really smart and good at art, and Mark is nice and funny too, he just has a sharp tongue.”

Jon smiled softly at the thought of his friends.

“I guess I have just always liked to hang back and watch people,” Jon said. He smiles a bit sadly, “Mark always said I was the type people liked to push around or project feelings onto. I guess I always liked that they seemed to know that and never take advantage of it.”

Matt sat thinking on those words for a bit. “You know, you are a pretty smart guy yourself. And sweet too.”

Jon smiled and his eyes crinkled around the edges as he did so.

“So what about you? What were you like in high school? All I really know is that the four of you seemed to get in trouble a lot.”

“Ahah, you aren’t wrong,” Matt chuckled dryly as a flood of distant memories of detentions and angry peers rushed in.

“I don’t know, I cared too much about looks, still do. Was always trying to prove something to someone, Tord, Mark, Edd. Was really insecure and kind of a jerk because of it.”

“Well I think you’ve mostly grown out of it,” Jon said smiling.

Matt’s heart kept squeezing and he leans in to kiss Jon and one thing leads to another and they are back in the car again and Matt feels like there is whiplash or something. Something is off.

“Are you alright to do this?” It’s him asking the question to Jon which feels backwards.

“Oh, I would have asked you to do this earlier but I was too shy,” Jon admits and he wants to feel shocked at his own brazenness but the night has been too good for him to feel much ashamed of anything.

“Really? I don’t get why you are so shy, your cute as a button and there were plenty of guys checking you out tonight,” Matt says with blunt honesty. There’s a voice in his head saying, you always rush things, you always go to fast. And he ignores it to focus on the guy in front of him.

Jon covers his face as he feels himself flushing even more, “You were pretty cool out there too.” He says through muffled fingers.

“Seriously?” Matt says with mock annoyance. He tries to pry Jon’s fingers from his face. “You don’t have to go and hide.”

He leans down and kisses Jon’s nose and then lets go of his hands. This time Jon covers his mouth to stifle a laugh and Matt finds himself peppering him with soft kisses until he is out of breath laughing too.

He undoes Jon’s shirt while the other is recovering from his fit of laughter. Matt pulls off his shirt himself.

“Isn’t this your roommate’s car? Won’t he be mad you are, you know?” Jon asks tentatively.

Matt shrugs. “I doubt he cares, if he does I’ll get it cleaned.”

There is a brief silence between them before Matt looks down at Jon’s crotch and contemplates it for a minute. That voice in his head is still monologuing and painful memories of every botched night, every relationship misstep keep surfacing up from the bog of his subconscious where he had hoped they would have stayed.

“So look, I know it’s been a lot of stuff going on tonight, but uh, how about I just blow you and call it a night?” Matt says and he can’t help that his nerves are creeping into his voice.

“Huh?” Jon said, sitting up to look at him confused. “Uh, did I do something wrong? I thought the whole point was you wanted to get laid.”

“Yeah but I have been especially shitty tonight and both Mark and I have a long history of shitty, also you are in heat or about to be and I would rather just take you out on a real date and do it the right way. Also I am… not really into the one night stand type thing anymore, got into it and out of it in high school,” Matt babbles.

It hits Jon like a croquet mallet that Matt is, out loud, doing the kind of verbal vomit he usually does in his head.

“Oh, uh, yeah I get it,” Jon says. “You want to get dressed and then I can give you my number?”  
Matt nods and the two of them pull themselves together and take a minute to catch their breaths before trading phones.

“Alright well, thanks for putting up with me tonight,” Matt says, looking at Jon sheepishly.

“It was a lot of fun,” he says and then they get in the front seats and Matt starts the engine. They drive in silence and it amazingly isn’t awkward. It’s comfortable. He doesn’t feel pressured or like there were failed expectations from Jon. Every time he hazards a glance in his direction he finds his passenger staring out the front of the dash serenely, looking sleepy. His nerves die down as they ride.

Matt parks in their driveway and walks Jon to the door. Jon turns back and gives him a small peck on the cheek last moment and then unlocks his door and goes inside.

Matt gets a glimpse of Tom sprawled across Mark’s lap, Mark’s head tossed back and snoring loudly, Tom’s face half wedged in between the couch cushions, noses forced up into a sort of pug snout.

He stifles a laugh as Jon closes the door.


End file.
